Four accused in aluminum thefts are arraigned

Saturday

Apr 26, 2014 at 1:55 AM

By Matt TotaDaily News Staff

FRANKLIN — Four people accused of stealing thousands of pounds of high-grade aluminum from Pierce Aluminum have been ordered to stay away from the company and have no contact with its employees.David Devine, John McCartney, Leanna Schwippert and Stephen Fuller were arraigned on Friday in Norfolk Superior Court on charges stemming from a series of break-ins and thefts at the 34 Forge Parkway company, which manufactures specialized aluminum used in boats, jets and military vehicles.Devine, 29, of Taunton, the son of a Pierce executive, faces the brunt of the charges, including six counts of breaking and entering at night for a felony and five counts of felony breaking and entering during the daytime.Fuller, 29, of Taunton, is charged with breaking and entering at night for a felony.McCartney, 21, of Taunton, and Schwippert, 29, of Norfolk, are both charged with accessory after the fact.All four were released without bail with the order to have no contact with the company or its employees. For Devine, however, the order does not apply to his father.Their arrests followed a Franklin Police Department investigation that spanned several months.According to police, Devine, a former Pierce employee, would use a security code to enter a warehouse at the company. The stolen aluminum — more than 100,000 pounds — was hauled away using a forklift, loaded onto a truck and sold at scrap yards, police said.Franklin police said they tracked the stolen aluminum to Allied Recycling Center in Walpole, where sales records indicated 30 separate transactions from November 2012 to April 2013; the total weight of the aluminum was roughly 152,216 pounds, worth more than $107,000.A Pierce official who accompanied Franklin detectives to Allied Recycling identified 45 separate pallets and boxes of the stolen product, even pointing out individual markings on pieces of the metal, police said.In April 2013, Schwippert was caught trying to sell some of the aluminum at Old Colony Scrap in Taunton, police said.According to court documents, Schwippert would later tell police that Devine was responsible for the metal thefts, and she lead them to a Taunton apartment she shared with Devine.Police said they recovered about 4,257 pounds of aluminum, an Old Colony Scrap receipt, a Budget truck rental agreement and an Allied Recycling Center business card, among other pieces of evidence, from the apartment.Matt Tota can be reached at 508-634-7521 or mtota@wickedlocal.com.